​​​WISCONSIN BOWHUNTERS ASSOCIATION

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The Wisconsin Bowhunters Association has been in existence for 85 years. Next year it will be 86 years, the following year 87, etc. I hope you understand the point that I am getting to. WBH has been here for 85 years, and if your WBH Board of Directors has anything to say or do about it, WBH will be here for another 85 plus years.

I remember back in the 1970’s-1980’s, if you told someone you were a member of WBH they would be jealous and immediately ask, “How do I join WBH?”  In my neck of the woods, everyone that bow hunted back then was a member and supported WBH. Regarding the WBH convention back then, it was not uncommon to have 700 to 800 people attend the awards banquet. The banquet was then followed up with a dance and good times. If you were going to attend the following year’s convention you made your hotel reservation the day you left the current convention otherwise you probably would not get a hotel room at the convention’s host hotel. Continuing to look back, there was the Necedah Shoot. If you attended the Necedah shoot you better get there early in the morning if you wanted to shoot that day. Otherwise, you were going to have to wait until the following day to shoot. Also, back in the day, WBH had approximately 12,000 members also.

I am not really sure exactly where I am going with this, but a quote does come to mind. “Remember the good old days!” Sometimes I wish for the “good old days” and maybe some of you other WBH members do the same. I am not sure what has happened to the interest in being a WBH member or for that matter, part of any organization these days. But it hurts my head trying to think of ways to get back to the WBH’s “the good old days.”

OK, enough reminiscing. Now it is time to shift gears and move onto some new WBH business. These are WBH issues that the Board of Directors are wrestling with that I think you as members need to be informed about.

First, if you attended the 2026 WBH Annual Membership meeting you are already aware of a motion that was made from the floor and accepted by the members in attendance to raise yearly and Life Membership dues. The1-year individual WBH membership will increase from $25 to a fee of $35. A 3-year Individual WBH membership will increase from $60 to a fee of $90. A 5-year WBH individual membership will increase from $100 to a fee of $150. An individual WBH regular lifetime membership will increase to $1,000. This motion also stated that the membership dues increase will take effect January 01, 2027. WBH has not raised membership dues in a number of years while each and every year the cost to maintain those memberships has continued to increase. The WBH Board of Directors has been contemplating raising membership dues over these past several years and put it off as long as possible. Seeing the support to do this from those members in attendance, was much appreciated by the BOD.

Another topic of interest is that the WBH has hired a new magazine publisher. Along with this, the BOD approved upgrading the type of paper that will be used in the magazine. This will now allow WBH to offer colored pages anywhere in The Bowhunter, WBH’s official magazine, this will be a great improvement versus the current magazine. The negative to this is that in order to accomplish this, it comes at a cost increase for the printing of our 3 magazines each year. Your WBH Board of Directors figured it was time for us to take the step to improve the quality of our magazine and produce a product we all can be proud of. To help offset this increase in cost, WBH did raise the price of all ads that are placed in the magazine. But now, any ad can be printed in color if so desired. Also, from now on, when a WBH member sends in a trophy photo for the trophy section it will also be printed in color.

 The next subject I will move on to and write about is the WBH’s Annual Broadhead shoot. This year because of the way the calendar lays out the WBH broadhead shoot will occur on Labor Day weekend. Every so often in history the shoot ends up on this weekend because this shoot has always been held on the weekend before the Wisconsin archery deer season opener. Every year it seems that attendance declines at this shoot. Obviously, there are a number of reasons for this decline. Western states have started their archery seasons by then and more and more archers are doing these western hunts. Many hunters do not practice with broadheads anymore, which can be for a variety of reasons. So, my question is, what can WBH do to increase the interest in our annual broadhead shoot? Many suggestions have been brought to the WBH Board of Directors for consideration, but one that is mentioned frequently is to hold the shoot at an earlier date in August. One problem with doing this is it creates conflicts with other clubs that already have shoots during the month of August. Another suggestion is to consider holding a 3d shoot instead. We are not really sure if there is one definitive answer, but one thing is certain and that is WBH needs to take a hard look at this opportunity or benefit provided for WBH members and what can be done to make it more worthwhile and cost effective for the organization.